SUMMARY OF PROGRAM: This is an application for competitive renewal of a training program that was originally funded in 1979 to develop physician-investigators. The program aims to expose residents at a critical stage in their development to the gratifications of investigation, whether patient based or laboratory, and how investigation and clinical practice can be married successfully. To this end, candidates for initial support must be currently enrolled in our neurology residency-training program. Selected individuals are offered individualized "research tracks" which begin during their third year of residency and continue into the post-residency period. Emphasis is on the integral nature of basic discovery, translational development, and clinical application, including experimental therapeutics. AREAS AND DISCIPLINES: Departmental faculty is organized into 10 major disease based divisions: Aging and dementia, clinical neurophysiology, critical care, epilepsy, movement disorders, neuro-immunology, neuromuscular diseases, neuro-oncology, pediatric neurology, and stroke. Neuroepidemiologists in the Sergievsky Center collaborate in the planning and execution of all population studies and therapeutic trials. In addition to this "vertical" alignment, there are "horizontal" groupings based on pathophysiological or neurobiological themes that emphasize basic and translational research capabilities: Neurodegeneration and cell death, mitochondrial biology, metabolic brain diseases, regeneration/cell replacement, genetics and epidemiology. Additional opportunities for research training are available in the Department of Pathology (Neuropathology) and in the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior. LEVELS OF TRAINING: The program is designed for young neurologists who are in the last year of their clinical training in neurology and are judged to have potential for academic careers. NUMBER AND BACKGROUND OF TRAINEES: We request support for four trainees to give maximal flexibility for entry into the program and assurance of at least two years of support in cases where no other funding is available. The program flexibly accommodates MDs with academic interests but little past research experience as well as MD-PhDs who wish to continue their research or re-orient the focus of their laboratory interest.